READ THE CITIZENS' VOICE

Digital Only Subscription
Read the digital e-Edition of The Citizens' Voice on your PC or mobile device, and have 24/7 access to breaking news, local sports, contests, and more at citizensvoice.com or on our mobile apps.

Digital Services
Have news alerts sent to your mobile device or email, read the e-Edition, sign up for daily newsletters, enter contests, take quizzes, download our mobile apps and see the latest e-circulars.

Contact Us
See department contacts, frequently asked questions, request customer service support, submit a photo or place an ad.

Related stories

BELLEFONTE - It would have been a bombshell: Jerry Sandusky's adopted son, Matt, telling jurors that he too was a victim of his father's abuse.

Matthew Sandusky, 33, disclosed the abuse for the first time this week, first to his attorney, and then to prosecutors and investigators, his attorney, Andrew Shubin, said Thursday.

Prosecutors were prepared to call Matthew Sandusky to testify as a rebuttal witness if his adopted father took the stand Wednesday and denied allegations of child sex abuse from least eight other accusers and two eyewitnesses, Shubin said.

Shubin, the attorney for two of those accusers, revealed Matthew Sandusky's claims soon after jurors began deliberating the 48 counts pending against Jerry Sandusky in that case.

"This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt," Shubin said in a statement.

NBC News reported Thursday evening on another previously unknown accuser: Travis Weaver, who said Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator abused him from 1992 to 1996 and threatened to have his father, a university employee, fired if Weaver went to police.

The jury in the current case was not told of the allegations from Weaver or Matthew Sandusky.

The panel of seven women and five men worked for more than eight hours Thursday, but indicated in a note to Senior Judge John M. Cleland they were struggling with a set of charges related to the sexual assault former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary said he witnessed in a team shower in February 2001.

Cleland, returning to the courtroom at 8:30 p.m., told jurors he would ascent to their request to revisit McQueary's testimony, but that he would not play the two-hour audio recording or have a transcript read back to them until this morning.

Jurors will also revisit the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Dranov, the friend McQueary's father summoned for in the wake of the alleged shower incident. Dranov testified that Mike McQueary was "visibly shaken," his voice trembling and hands shaking as he described the "sexual sounds" he heard.

Wesley M. Oliver, a Widener Law School professor and NBC News legal analyst, said defense attorneys appeared to keep Jerry Sandusky off the witness stand Wednesday to prevent damaging rebuttal testimony. At the time, few besides those closely involved in the case were aware of the Matthew Sandusky allegations.

"It looks as if the rebuttal case now would have included Matthew Sandusky, but Matthew Sandusky would have been a wildcard for the defense," Oliver said. "He is, of course, the defendant's adopted son, which would have made him compelling in some ways - why would he testify against his father? But there's a real downside to this because, why didn't he come forward before?"

An attorney for one of the accusers who testified against Jerry Sandusky last week said Matthew Sandusky's claim of abuse "monumentally changes the overall picture from accusers outside to right inside the Sandusky home."

"It is a bombshell," attorney Tom Kline said. "This jury will need to deliberate on the evidence in front of them, but obviously it is explosive."

Kline, who represents the accuser identified by prosecutors as Victim 5, said calling Matthew Sandusky to the stand would have been "very damaging" to Jerry Sandusky.

The accuser identified by prosecutors as Victim 4 testified last week that Matthew Sandusky once went with him and Jerry Sandusky to play racquetball in the late 1990s.

Afterward, as they showered together, Jerry Sandusky engaged Victim 4 in a "soap battle," the accuser said. Matthew Sandusky, appearing "nervous," turned off his shower and went to an adjacent locker room, the accuser said.

Matthew Sandusky testified before the grand jury investigating Jerry Sandusky but a 23-page grand-jury report made public last November did not list him or Weaver as a victim of his father's sexual abuse.

Matthew Sandusky sat with other Sandusky family members during the bulk of his adoptive father's child sex abuse trial, even as he was coming to terms with his own alleged abuse.

As a youth, Matthew Sandusky participated in The Second Mile program where prosecutors said Jerry Sandusky befriended many of the boys he abused. The Sanduskys raised Matthew for two years as a foster child and later adopted him.

Matthew had a different name before the adoption. In the last decade, according to court documents, Matthew returned to the misbehaving lifestyle that pocked his pre-Sandusky youth.

The Citizens' Voice reported last November on abuse allegations against Matthew Sandusky, which could have been raised by Jerry Sandusky's attorneys in a potential cross-examination.

An ex-girlfriend filed a protection-from-abuse petition against Matthew Sandusky in April 2002, accusing him of harassing and stalking her through a seven-month string of bizarre telephone calls, emails and attempts at face-to-face contact.

The petition portrayed the younger Sandusky as an obsessive, immature scorned lover who tracked his ex-girlfriend's moments and became temperamental when he believed she had been with another man.

The episode bookended another, in June 2010, in which Matthew Sandusky's wife accused him of attacking her, screaming and threatening her and damaging property.

A subsequent protection-from-abuse order issued by a Centre County judge limited Matthew Sandusky's contact with his two daughters, 6 and 7, and son, 3, to two telephone calls a day. The judge also authorized periods of partial custody "to be arranged through minor children's grandparents, Jerry and Dorothy Sandusky."

That arrangement was allowed while the grand jury continued to investigate Jerry Sandusky. Following Jerry Sandusky's arrest, Matthew Sandusky's wife obtained an emergency order banning Jerry Sandusky from having contact with his grandchildren without supervision and prohibiting him from hosting them for overnight visits.

According to 2002 court records reviewed by The Citizens' Voice, Matthew Sandusky repeatedly violated a request from the ex-girlfriend, her parents and the police to refrain from contacting her. He sent numerous emails accusing the ex-girlfriend of cheating, calling her cellphone so often she felt compelled to change her number. He also drove past her home so frequently she called the police.

The police eventually caught up with Matthew Sandusky, charging him with multiple charges of harassment and stalking. Matthew Sandusky, now 32, pleaded guilty in Centre County court to a misdemeanor count of harassment by communication and served an unspecified term of probation.

Sports Illustrated documented Matthew Sandusky's troubled youth in a 1999 profile of his father, who was retiring from Penn State after 32 years with the football program. The article recounted Matthew Sandusky's arrest at age 15 ("I'd rather not say for what," he told writer Jack McCallum), probation and rehabilitation in the Sandusky household.

"My life changed when I came to live here," Matthew Sandusky, a Penn State football manager in his father's final year, told the magazine. "There were rules, there was discipline, there was caring. Dad put me on a workout program. He gave me someone to talk to, a father figure I never had. I have no idea where I'd be without him and mom. I don't even want to think about it. And they've helped so many kids besides me."

The rest of the story of Matthew's life in the Sandusky household appeared in the Patriot-News in November. The newspaper reported Matthew Sandusky attempted suicide four months into his stay with the family and that a school probation officer had "serious concerns" about his safety with the family.

Any lessons of civility and maturity Matthew Sandusky learned from the Sanduskys appeared to wear off as he grew older and entered adult relationships.

Matthew Sandusky, listed on a marriage license as a convenience store employee, married a 19-year-old co-worker on Feb. 14, 2002 - two weeks before the shower incident and about six weeks before his ex-girlfriend filed the protection-from-abuse petition.

Their marriage appeared headed for failure from fall 2009 through summer 2010, according to the wife's protection-from-abuse petition. Matthew Sandusky would create fake Facebook profiles, threatening his wife's friends and asking some of them out on dates, the petition said. When they decided the marriage should end, Matthew Sandusky "harassed" his wife "constantly with phone calls and text messages," the petition said.

After Matthew Sandusky's wife moved out in May 2010, he showed up at her new home, yelling, threatening and accusing her of unspecified behavior, the petition said. The episode compelled a judge to issue an emergency protection-from-abuse order. Matthew Sandusky violated the order when he texted his wife asking her not to seek a more permanent order, the petition said.

Throughout the dissolution of their marriage, Matthew Sandusky "has made threats of suicide, made threats to kill (his wife's) father, made threats to 'beat the (expletive) out of' the people helping (his wife) and made threats by damaging property," the petition said.

msisak@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2061, @cvmikesisak

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.